So why would any woman voluntarily become part of a series in which the key players scream at each other at full throttle, while accusing one another of being everything from gold diggers to sex workers. When someone isn’t tearing up on the Real Housewives Of Melbourne you know it must be an ad break.
McLean admits to having watched two seasons of the show and has known some of the women, including Liano, Keebaugh and Schiavello, for a long time. So surely she knew what she was up against when she signed the contract?
“When I started the show, I thought that it would be easy and that it would be good,” she acknowledges. “But I was sorely mistaken.”
Susie McLean from Real Housewives of Melbourne at the Foxtel 2016 Programming Announcement held at Strickland House, Vaucluse. Picture: Jonathan Ng
McLean, 47 (“I say I’m 40 plus GST plus holiday loading”), looked the part of an RHOM cast mate in a sexy, clingy, red dress at Thursday’s Foxtel launch for the year ahead.
It was held at the historic Strickland House at Vaucluse, once a women’s convalescent establishment. It’s easy to tell from McLean’s slightly bewildered expression at being thrown in among Sydney media that she is not quite sure what she has got herself into and perhaps convalescence could be a great option.
At least today she has Gillies, one of her closest TV buddies on RHOM, with her. Gillies is the psychic wife of Silverchair drummer Ben Gillies and is giving McLean her full support.
“I like Susie, she tells it like it is and keeps it real. I told her right from the beginning, just speak your truth and you will be fine,” Gillies explains.
McLean, whose parents were both born in Italy, says she has no problems finding her voice on the show. “I fire up quickly and then calm down,” she says, adding that some of the other women have already described her as a “cute little rattlesnake”.
“In the beginning someone asked Gamble whether she had chewed me up and spat me out yet,” McLean says. “But she wailed that I was the one who was chewing people up and spitting them out.”
